Football club NAC has been relegated and that hurts (also in the wallet)

The blow of relegation still reverberates in Breda. But for some NAC supporters it is extra painful: they will not only lose the Eredivisie, but also their regular place in the stands. Friday evening, the regular matchday in the Kitchen Champion Division, has no chance for them and so they will miss the atmosphere at NAC.

For Pieter and Bryan Lips it feels like the end of a tradition. Father and son have been going to the stadium together for more than twenty years. “That’s our thing,” says Pieter. “Always together, always NAC. But due to the relegation, that is over for the time being.”

Work in their bakery starts exactly when NAC kicks off on Friday. “We are turning dough and rolling sausage rolls at eight o’clock,” says baker Bryan. The matches on Monday evening are also not an option, because the alarm goes off at a quarter past three in the morning. “We’re really disappointed, because we’re going to miss it all: the atmosphere, the togetherness and the beer. That’s what you come for.”

It is not the first time that the baker’s family has encountered this problem, but the frustration runs deep. “After the previous relegation, we were able to move very little and that hurts,” father Pieter adds to his son. “Still, we keep our season tickets, because the club love remains. But the NAC Evening has been taken away from us for the time being.”

The impact of the relegation will also be felt in the city center of Breda. NAC supporters gather in many cafes in the afternoon to watch the match. “A Saturday evening with NAC, that was sacred,” says Sem van Mook, owner of café Heeren van Breda. “People came hours in advance and they stayed around after the match. That was turnover, but especially experience.”

That experience is now crumbling. “Friday evening is different,” continues the NAC supporter through and through. “People come from work and are tired. They are less likely to leave the house.” Van Mook expects his turnover on match days to drop by a quarter to even a third: “You feel that and it hurts.”

Owner Ad Baelemans sees the same pattern at café Catch 22. “It’s just less alive,” he says. “Not only through the day, but also through the opponents. NAC against Ajax, that’s impressive. NAC against a team from the KKD… that’s different.”

There is also a bitter reality: the costs remain. Catering establishments pay thousands of euros for sports channel ESPN to broadcast matches. “If fewer people come to watch, you start to wonder what you are doing it for,” says Baelemans.

The relegation also has unpleasant consequences for the youth. For example, for 17-year-old NAC fan Sill Havermans from Dorst. While his peers will go to the stadium on Friday next season, he will have to drop out. Not out of unwillingness, but out of a sense of duty.

“I give football training to young children on Friday evenings,” he says. “That is my side job and I really like it. The relegation actually hits me twice as hard. My club is sinking and I now have to miss the atmosphere at NAC.”

In this way it is slowly becoming clear in Breda that relegation is more than a sporting blow. It cuts into routines, into incomes, into traditions. “But if we have a good season and are promoted, we will be back on the terrace with champagne in nine months,” concludes pub owner Van Mook. “That makes everything right again.”